OPEC Members’ Net Oil Export Revenue May Plunge to $34billion

The net oil export earnings of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, could slide from the $404 billion it earned in 2015 to about $341 billion in 2016.

The  United States, U.S., Energy Information Administration, EIA, which made this projection in OPEC revenues fact sheet released on Wednesday,June 15, stated that the cartel’s revenue crashed by 46 per cent from the $753 billion earned in 2014 to $404 billion, mainly as a result of a precipitous fall in average yearly crude oil prices during the year.

OPEC’s oil export income per person is back to where it was when prices crashed at the end of the 1990s.

According to the agency, these net export earnings include Iran, unlike in previous reports. Specifically, Nigeria’s oil export revenue dropped from the $78 billion it earned in 2014 to $39 billion in 2015.

Already, the country has earned only $10 billion between January and May 2016.Also, Nigeria’s per capita net oil export revenue dropped from $492 billion it recorded in 2014 to $240 as at December 2015.

For 2017, OPEC revenues are projected to be $427 billion, with an increase in forecast crude oil prices, coupled with higher production and exports, contributing to the rise in overall earnings.

However, the report noted that Iran’s net export revenues are not adjusted for possible price discounts the country may have offered its customers between late 2011 and January 2016, when nuclear-related sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sales were in place.

Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $130 billion in 2015, representing approximately one-third of total OPEC oil revenues.

On a per capita basis, OPEC net oil export earnings are expected to decline by about 17 per cent from $606 in 2015 to $503 in 2016.

The expected decline in OPEC’s net export earnings has been attributed to lower forecast yearly crude oil prices in 2016 compared with 2015.